1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle and in particular to a vehicle that receives electric power, in a non-contact manner, from an electric power transmitting coil provided externally to the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various charging systems, such as a charging system that wirelessly charges a battery mounted on a vehicle, have been proposed.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-229425 (JP-A-2004-229425), a vehicle parking system is described that charges a battery mounted on a vehicle with the use of radio waves, such as microwaves.
In this vehicle parking system, an energy supply facility installed at a parking lot, or car park, or an energy station, transmits microwaves to the vehicle while the vehicle is parked. A microwave generator generates microwaves that are higher in intensity than the microwaves that is supplied to the vehicle while the vehicle is running. The vehicle receives microwaves and converts the microwaves to electric energy to charge a battery.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-97345 (JP-A-2007-97345) describes a parking assist system that is used to charge a battery mounted on a vehicle. The vehicle assist system includes: a display portion that displays an image viewed from the vehicle; an image capturing device that captures the image viewed from the vehicle; an input portion that receives the target parking position of the vehicle; and a control portion that calculates the path according to the target parking position to perform parking assist control. When an indicator that indicates the position of a facility-side electric power exchange portion is present near the target parking position, the control portion recognizes the position of the indicator and performs control to align a vehicle-side electric power exchange portion installed in the vehicle and the facility-side electric power exchange portion.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-102329 (JP-A-9-102329) describes a charging system that charges an electric vehicle. The charging system includes a primary coil that is provided on the parking lot side, a secondary coil that is provided on the electric vehicle side, and a vehicle position detecting means for detecting whether the primary coil and the secondary coil are positioned so that these coils can be magnetically coupled to each other. In addition, this charging system further includes a charging control circuit that excites the primary coil by a charging power supply when the vehicle position detecting means detects that the electric vehicle is positioned at a proper position.
The electric vehicle described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-106136 (JP-A-2009-106136) receives charging electric power wirelessly from a power source provided externally to the vehicle and charges a charging device mounted on the vehicle.
In order to charge the battery mounted on the vehicle, it is necessary to align the coil mounted on the vehicle and the coil provided on the charging facility side. Meanwhile, a vehicle equipped with a camera that captures an image near the vehicle when the vehicle is backed, and a display unit that displays the image captured by the camera, is already available.
Thus, a method is conceivable, in which when a coil mounted on a vehicle and a coil provided for a charging facility are aligned, the alignment of the coil installed in the vehicle and the coil provided for the charging facility is performed while viewing the coil provided for the charging facility via a camera.
When the coil mounted on the vehicle is disposed at the bottom of the vehicle, however, it is difficult to view the coil mounted on the vehicle on the display unit via the camera that is provided on a side face of the vehicle.
In addition, when the coil mounted on the vehicle is disposed at the bottom of the vehicle, the coil on the charging facility side also becomes positioned under the vehicle when the coils are aligned.
Thus, mounting a camera on a vehicle does not necessarily facilitate the alignment of the coil mounted on the vehicle and the coil on the charging facility side.
Note that the above conventional vehicle parking system or the like has no device that facilitates the alignment of the coil mounted on the vehicle and the coil on the charging facility side when the coil mounted on the vehicle is disposed at the bottom of the vehicle.